After the collapse of one of the largest bitcoin exchange platforms in the world, Mt. Gox, numerous bitcoiners have looked elsewhere to handle their digital currency holdings. Bitcoin exchanges BTC-e and Bitstamp are taking advantage of Mt. Gox’s losses and presently handling a majority of total trades.
According to figures from Bitcoin Average, BTC-e manages approximately 30 percent of trades, while Bitstamp is handling close to half (44 percent) of the current bitcoin trading volume. Bitfinex is third on the list with less than 23 percent.
Other data indicates that nearly three-quarters (70 percent) of all bitcoin transactions are completed in United States dollars. Sixteen percent of transactions are done in Chinese yuan, 5.7 percent are performed in Hong Kong dollars and the euro represents only 4.7 percent.
Soon after the insolvency declaration by Mt. Gox, which once hosted as much as 80 percent of the world’s bitcoin trades, virtual currency holders sought other venues to participate in the bitcoin economy.
The Tokyo, Japan-based website experienced numerous DDos attacks and lost 850,000 bitcoins ($527.5 million dollars). It still remains to be determined if the missing bitcoins were stolen, voided by technological vulnerabilities or if it was a matter of both.
“We have lost bitcoins due to weaknesses in the system,” said Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles. “I am sorry for the troubles I have caused all the people.”
At the time of this writing, bitcoin is trading at $620.